Narendra Modi wins from Varanasi, margin greater than 2014

"Thank you India! The faith placed in our alliance is humbling and gives us strength to work even harder to fulfil people's aspirations," Modi tweeted.
Narendra Modi wins from Varanasi, margin greater than 2014
Narendra Modi wins from Varanasi, margin greater than 2014
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Prime Minister Narendra Modi, the sitting MP from Varanasi, has been elected from the constituency for a second term, defeating Congress’s Ajay Rai and SP-BSP gathbandhan candidate Shalini Yadav. Modi won by a margin of 4,79,505 votes with Shalini Yadav a distant second. Varanasi is a bastion of the BJP and has been held consistently by the party since 1991, barring one term in 2004 which was won by the Congress. Modi’s margin is more than in 2014, and he now has been elected for a second term.

“Thank you India! The faith placed in our alliance is humbling and gives us strength to work even harder to fulfil people's aspirations,” he tweeted.

In 2014, Modi defeated Aam Aadmi Party’s Arvind Kejriwal by a massive margin of 3.71 lakh votes, winning 5,81,022 votes. Congress’s Ajay Rai came a distant third with just 75614 votes, and even lost his deposit. Varanasi was the first time that Modi had contested from anywhere outside Gujarat. Modi had contested from both Varanasi and Vadodara in 2014 and won both, and subsequently gave up Vadodara.

The Congress candidate was initially speculated to be Priyanka Gandhi Vadra, before Ajay Rai was once again given the ticket.

Modi’s margin of 3.71 lakh votes in 2014 is reportedly the second highest margin in Lok Sabha elections ever. It is a record the BJP aimed to break this time.

Modi held a mega rally on April 26 in Varanasi before filing his nomination, and the roadshow saw the presence of several BJP leaders including party president Amit Shah, Uttar Pradesh chief minister Yogi Adityanath, Railway Minister Piyush Goyal and Health Minister JP Nadda.

Prior to his 2014 win from Varanasi and subsequent prime ministership, Modi was a three-time Chief Minister from Gujarat. Modi first became the Chief Minister of Gujarat in 2001, and continued to hold the position till 2014, when he became the Prime Minister. In 2002, 2007 and 2012, he was elected as the MLA from Maninagar.

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